Netroots Nation: Al Franken & Ari Melber's Labor Panel

(photo by DiAnne Grieser)

It was a pleasure listening to Al Franken, as he comes from the land of Mondale, Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, and Wellstone. Ari (from the Nation as well as an original Seattle local & known to me from the Kerry campaign) introduced Al and then moderated a labor panel that featured organizers from Wisconsin and an author from American Prospect. The thrust of the whole panel was the erosion of the middle class and the fact that conservatives values are actually RADICAL and liberal values actually CONSERVE progressive American values such as weekends, overtime, no child labor, a secure retirement, health care, infrastructure, education etc. As the United States moves from a manufacturing to a service economy, service workers need to organize to create decent jobs with a good standard of living vs crap jobs with high turnover. Democrats need to listen to labor as more than a "special interest group," and quit catering to Wall Street.